Die Kaue

For 125 years coal was mined at the Hugo pit in Gelsenkirchen-Buer. Every day up to 4,000 miners used the pithead bath (“Kaue”) for washing and changing. Clothes and personal belongings were placed in wire baskets and hoisted to the ceiling on chains. In 2000, the pit was closed, the miners weren’t needed anymore, and the Kaue has since been abandoned.